Thumbs way down on Ruby Falls

June 30, 2007

I’m spending about 24 hours in Chattanooga, TN on my way to Atlanta for the week of July 4th. Got into town around 10 a.m. and have spent most of today at the various Lookout Mountain attractions. I’m now sitting in my room at the Motel 6, tomorrow I’ll be seeing the Tennessee Aquarium in the morning before heading out to Atlanta.

Of the three primary attractions at Lookout, I thought Rock City was the best. They’ve basically carved out a nice trail thru the rocks at the top of Lookout Mountain, and once you get to the top of the trail there’s an observation deck where you get spectacular views across seven states (if the weather holds, which it did today). They also have a small raptor center and I happened to arrive in time to catch one of the shows. Large variety of birds of prey and since the theater was small and intimate you really got to see the birds up close and personal. The vulture almost took off what little hair I have left when it flew directly over my head. This was the only one of the three attractions that I thought was worth the time and money.

The Incline Railway wasn’t bad either, but it costs almost two-thirds what the Rock City cost and really is just an amusement park ride. It’s an old railcar, built at an angle so that it can haul people up the sides of Lookout Mountain. If you’ve ridden the inclinator at the Luxor casino in Las Vegas it’s a similar concept. The downside is that the Luxor’s inclinator is free whereas the Incline Railway costs $10. And the Incline Railway is crowded, so you end up spending a lot of time waiting in line to get on and off the thing. It was kinda fun but I don’t think it was worth the money.

Now the final attraction, Ruby Falls, was both a waste of time and money. It’s just an underground waterfall, but they manage to make it a 90-minute ordeal to see the thing. The passageways they’ve dug out of the mountain are narrow and there’s only one path to and from the waterfall. So as your tour group marches towards the falls, you have to stop frequently to let yet another outgoing group pass you. I also hated the fact that at the start of the tour, they make you get a photo taken. The guide tells you it’s for “identification purposes” but of course at the end of the tour the photos are available for purchase in various sizes. Yuck, I hate that kind of forced marketing on top of the money you’ve already spent with them to see the waterfall. Save your money and time, Mammoth Caves in Kentuky are superior in every way to Ruby Falls.